Compressor and Driver Selection Roundtable

Gas Electric Conference

Scott Schubring – Rotating Equipment
February 6, 2014
Houston, TX

DRAFT

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 Why do we need this compression?

• We have to Recover Pressure drop

• Pressure drop is caused by:
-Pipeline friction
-Gas filters / dehy / coolers / valves,
elbows, etc…
-Pulsation bottles and unit piping
-Suction pressure controllers
• Because the purpose of compression is to recover pressure
drop, shouldn’t our focus when selecting and installing
equipment take that into consideration?

© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Design Conditions?

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 Gas Turbine Driven Centrifugal Compressor

• Fairly Simple
• Low capital
• High O&M
© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. • High fuel costs 4
 Variable speed EMD Centrifugal Compression w/ VFD

• Fairly Simple
• Low capital (if power
available)
• Low O&M
• Very High power costs
© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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 Constant speed EMD / Voith transmission / Centrifugal
Compression

• Fairly Simple
• Low capital (if power
available)
• Low O&M
• High power costs
© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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 Slow Speed Integral Reciprocating Compression / Gas
Engine
• More Complex
• High capital
• Lowest O&M
• Lowest fuel costs

© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Constant Speed EMD Separable Slow Speed
Reciprocating Compression (No VFD)

• Very Simple
• Low capital (if
power available)
• Low O&M
• High power costs
© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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 Constant Speed EMD Separable High Speed
Reciprocating Compression (No VFD)
• Simple
• Low capital (if
power available)
• High O&M
• High power costs

© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Separable High Speed Reciprocating
Compression / Gas Engine

• Very Complex
• Mid range capital
• Very High O&M
• Low fuel costs
© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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 Electric Compression Considerations

• Your economic model needs to factor in all the

losses from the substation meter (where you are
billed) to the motor shaft.
-There is typically around 9~10% power
loss from the substation meter to the shaft.

© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Going “Green” by using electric?
More fuel is burned when using electric power.
Eventually (~2018), the government will start to
penalize us for using compression electricity
The “greenest” compression option will be to burn
natural gas locally – but hard to convince public

© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Electric Rates
• What do you really pay?

• How do you stay

competitive in the long
run?

A rate of $0.055
translates to $0.10+
actual cost?
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 Equipment Selection Drivers
O&M Costs

• Operation and Maintenance costs can be

significant and are a key driver for equipment
selection
• These costs need to be projected out for 20+
years to fully understand the economic effect to
the bottom line profit
• Some equipment types might seem inexpensive
due to long intervals between maintenance, but
look at the cost of that overhaul or replacement

© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 O&M Expenses Summary for Eqp options
Based on OEM Scheduled Maintenance and Actuals

© 2012 The Williams Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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